The American Revolution is one of the major events in United States history because it led to the formation of the United States itself, but the causes of war are crucial to understand. The Thirteen Colonies fought against Great Britain because the colonists wanted freedom and did not like the fact that the British were occupying the territory. Events that helped spark the revolution were the French and Indian War, the various laws passed to pay the debt, and the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayOne of the most important things that led to the start of the American Revolution was the French and Indian War. Since the permanent colonization of North America, “the French and the English were at odds with each other. Competition for trade, uncertain borders, and a turbulent population of frontiersmen sparked violence on both sides” (Fowler 2). The British and French had difficulty getting along due to conflicts over territory. In fact, the French and Indian War didn't even go well for the British at first. General Edward Braddock was sent to the colonies as commander-in-chief of the British army, but he distanced himself from potential Indian allies and the colonial leaders failed to cooperate with him. Braddock was killed on July 13, 1755 after failing to capture Fort Duquesne. After that, the war turned into a stalemate for the next two years. The war began to turn in favor of the British in 1757. William Pitt later led the British army in 1757 and helped defeat the French. French leader Montcalm believed that “France was expanding and not contracting. The continuing political problem for the French in Canada in early 1758 was that Old World observers in France viewed the entire North American continent as a disjointed and very unwelcome distraction from the battlefields of Europe. William Pitt, of course, saw otherwise” (Borneman 98). Although the French were winning the war before William Pitt led the British, they did not do well when he became leader of the British forces. Pitt sent thousands of British soldiers to fight alongside colonial troops. The British obtained parts of Canada occupied by the French, and the French achieved no victories in the war. The French were unable to revive their Indian allies, causing the French to surrender to Canada on September 8, 1760. While the British were still winning the war, Spain also became an ally of the French in 1762 The French still had sugar islands. in the Caribbean, but later these islands came under British control. One of the major turning points came when the British captured Havana on August 13, 1762. The British also captured Manila on October 5, 1762, which allowed Britain to become a world power. The war finally ended with the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763. The French recovered their West Indian sugar islands which constituted the most valuable of their colonial possessions. On the other hand, the French lost the rest of the North American empire. The British received all land east of the Mississippi River and ceded Spanish claims to the Trans-Mississippi West and New Orleans. Cuba and the Philippines were returned to Spain after the British received Florida. ThereFrance and Spain were collapsing financially and the British were beginning to dominate the new world. Americans were very proud to be part of the British Empire, considered the largest empire in the world. One of the major consequences of the French and Indian War was the explosion of England's national debt due to war spending. The British wanted to find a way to make the colonists pay the war debt. The first law in this sense was the Sugar Act, passed by the British Parliament. According to America's Homepage: Historic Documents of the United States, it was "an act for the granting of certain rights in the British colonies and plantations in America." Basically, this law was supposed to impose taxes on many products such as sugar and wine. Britain also lowered taxes on molasses from six pence to three pence per gallon. The British were very stingy indeed as they wanted more money to secure their colonies and lowered taxes to encourage more trade with Britain rather than other countries like France. It was expensive to secure the colonies because the British had to fight Indians, colonists, and other foreign powers. The Sugar Act was a failure because people were unhappy with the law. Trading with Britain would mean that people in the colonies would not be able to sell goods at high prices. People would even lose money if they tried to buy important products like sugar and wine after the Sugar Law. Colonial leaders launched a boycott of British goods in order to end the law. The Sugar Act was later repealed in 1766 and replaced by the Revenue Act of 1766, which reduced the tax to one cent per gallon of imported molasses, regardless of its origin. Another law that upset people was the Stamp Act. This law required people to obtain a legal stamp on various papers and documents such as licenses, newspapers, and even playing cards. The colonists thought it was unfair because people had these papers and documents for free, but the British wanted the debt repaid, so they used this method. The British thought this would pay off the French and Indian War debt, but it was unsuccessful. The colonists "found themselves imposing without consent for fiscal purposes, their rights to common law trial abridged, the authority of a prerogative (admiralty) court enlarged, and the creation of another (ecclesiastical) mooted" (Morgan 74). . The colonists continued to resist British laws, and thus the Stamp Act Congress began. In October 1765, nine colonies established the Stamp Act Congress and sent delegates to it. They came together to protest the taxation of the colonies by the British Parliament. The Americans led a boycott of British goods and the British came under pressure from the Americans. The British government believed that it was easier to repeal the law than to enforce it. The act actually harmed British trade, and they didn't really care about the rights of the colonists. A Declaratory Act was passed around the same time as the Revenue Act, and the Declaratory Act gave Parliament the power to determine what actions it deemed good for the empire. The colonists thought the Declaratory Act would solve the problems, but it didn't because it gave the British control over what they thought was good for the empire, and this resulted in even more laws later. The Quartering Act was a law that was passed by theBritish Parliament in 1765, and this indirectly affected the colonists. According to the Library of Congress, "the British further angered American colonists with the Quartering Act, which required the colonies to provide barracks and supplies for British troops." The British wanted to “protect” the colonists from the French, so they launched this act against the colonists. This was to pay British troops for their hard work protecting the colonists from French soldiers. The colonists didn't really see the French as a threat, so they didn't really see the point of the law. The British believed that their soldiers weren't really treated fairly in the colonies, so this law would ensure that they received proper care, such as food and drink. The settlers didn't really get anything in return, and they thought it was unfair because the soldiers weren't really people they knew personally. The soldiers were random people who stopped at people's homes and asked the settlers to take care of them. All of this ultimately caused an outcry because the law was too unfair. Some communities, like New York, actually opposed it. The act did not work as the British wanted and so it ended in 1767. The Townshend Revenue Acts were passed by the British Parliament in 1767. Products taxed included lead, paper, nails, tea and glass, as they were all made in England. Since he created taxes on the smuggling of British goods, he provoked a new boycott of them. The law is named after Charles Townshend, and he "really wanted to be sure that these taxes were collected, so he ordered new customs boards in the colonies and created new vice-admiralty courts in the major port cities of Boston, Charleston, and Philadelphia to try cases of smuggling and tax evasion” (Berkin 117). Revenues from this law are intended to pay the salaries of judges and governors in Congress. It was also intended to punish New York for not complying with the Quartering Act because they were not supplying British troops who were stopping at people's homes. All of Townshend's laws except the tea taxes were finally repealed in March 1770. This was one of the events that led to the Boston Tea Party which took place in 1773. One of the events preceding the Boston Tea Party was the Boston Massacre. On March 5, 1770, British troops fired on American civilians in Boston because American colonists were taunting British soldiers guarding the customs house. The Americans threw snowballs at the British guards and Thomas Preston ordered his men to fix bayonets and help guard the building by pushing back the entire crowd. Private Montgomery was hit and a gun was fired into the crowd. Others believed that Preston had ordered his troops to fire and that five settlers were dead and six wounded. This brought Captain Preston and his British soldiers to trial. John Adams and Josiah Quincy Jr. defended the soldiers because they believed the soldiers should receive a fair trial in the court system. Samuel Adams stated that "the event was not a riot, but the inevitable consequence of policing by armed soldiers in a community which preferred the police itself" (Allison v). The Tea Act took place in 1773, and this helped lead to the Boston Tea Act. Party. It gave the East India Company the right to sell tea throughout America without paying the duties collected in Britain. This led to a reduction in the retail price andthe Americans saw this act as a means of paying Townshend dues in the colonies. As Americans did not agree with this act, it led to resistance measures such as the Boston Tea Party which took place on December 16, 1773. The Boston Tea Party was an event in which the Sons of Liberty protested against American-imposed tax policies. the British government. Boston authorities refused to return the tea to Britain, so the colonists destroyed 342 crates of tea by throwing them into Boston Harbor. This was done in order to avoid having to pay them. The way the colonists destroyed these 342 tea chests was that they “disguised themselves, boarded British ships, and dumped them in [the] Boston Harbor” (Furstinger 50). Britain was angry about all the tea being destroyed, so they tried to hold the colonists responsible for what happened. One result of this event was what became known as the Intolerable Acts. The Intolerable Acts, also known as the Coercive Acts, were laws passed by the British Parliament in the spring of 1774. Five acts were created: The Boston Port Act. , the Massachusetts Government Act, the Administration of Justice Act, the Quartering Act of 1774 and the Quebec Act. The Boston Port Act was a direct response to the Boston Tea Party. This required the closure of Boston Harbor until the colonists paid the East India Company for all destroyed tea. It was not just the people who destroyed the tea who were held responsible, but the entire people of Boston. The Massachusetts Government Act changed the government of Massachusetts so that it was controlled by the British government. It also limited town meetings to one per year, and members of the governor's council and sheriffs would be appointed by the king or governor instead of being elected. The Administration of Justice Act gave the governor the ability to move the trial of an accused royal official to another colony or to Britain even if that person did not believe he or she had received a fair trial in Massachusetts. Most colonists did not believe this law was necessary because British soldiers had received a fair trial after the Boston Massacre. The Quartering Act of 1774 allowed soldiers to be quartered in any building, as opposed to individual houses. It applied to all the American colonies, not just Massachusetts, and was the least contested intolerable act. The Quebec Act established a permanent administration in Canada to replace the temporary government, gave French Canadians freedom of religion, and restored French civil law. It was considered one of the intolerable acts committed by the colonies, although it was not connected to any events in Boston, but it contributed to the start of the American Revolution. Twelve of the thirteen colonies responded to the intolerable acts at the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in September–October 1774. They called for a boycott of British goods and the colonies agreed to meet again if British policy was not changed. Delegates voted not to import goods from Britain, but they delayed a vote on the no-export policy to Britain. The colonists hoped this would cause Britain to change its policies. The delegates also succeeded in getting Congress to approve the Suffolk resolutions, so the coercive acts would be unconstitutional. The delegates denounce the dissolution of the colonial assemblies because this would keep the troops.